Monday, April 5, 2010

April's Secret Agent Contest

Yep, it's that time again! Submissions for our April contest will open a week from today.

Please note: Submissions are NOT OPEN right now. This is an early announcement to give everyone heads up. I've been receiving early submissions in increasing amounts! This contest will open on Monday, April 12.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

* Submissions will open at 12:00 pm EST.* Submissions will be open for 24 hours or until 50 eligible entries have been received, WHICHEVER COMES FIRST.* Submissions received before the contest opens will be disqualified.* Submissions are for COMPLETED MANUSCRIPTS ONLY. If you wouldn't want an agent to read the entire thing, DON'T SEND IT. If an "entire thing" doesn't exist, you shouldn't even be reading these rules.* Manuscripts THAT HAVE BEEN IN A SECRET AGENT CONTEST DURING THE PAST SIX MONTHS (October-March) will not be accepted.* You may submit A DIFFERENT MANUSCRIPT if you've participated in any previous Secret Agent contests.* Only ONE ENTRY per person per contest. If you send more than one, your subsequent entry(ies) will be deleted.* If you are PAST WINNER, please DO NOT ENTER THIS CONTEST. (Unless it's a different manuscript.)* Submissions are for THE FIRST 250 WORDS of your manuscript. Please do not stop in the middle of a

Your submission for this contest should be formatted as follows:

SCREEN NAMETITLEGENRE

(Followed by the excerpt here.)

* No "chapter one," chapter titles, etc.* You will receive a confirmation email with your post number. I don't always get through quickly. Don't resend.* Submissions go to facelesswords(at)gmail.com. They DO NOT GO to my authoressmail address. Those of you who are subscribed to this blog via email will note the latter address as the "from." If you use this address for the contest, I WILL NOT SEE YOUR SUBMISSION.

I have a question. (I'm newer to this site so I apologize if this subject has been addressed before.)What age group does the YA genre encompass? I have a coming-of-age story of four friends growing up that culminates in their graduation from college. Half the story revolves around their childhood and the other half takes place in college. Is this story still considered YA? There doesn't seem to be a genre that cleanly fits this type of storyline (or age group). Is it ok to submit this as YA?